The Internet technologies and their widespread use have made it possible for many people to participate in online trade activities. Many companies facilitate trade on servers connected to users over one or more networks, typically including the Internet. The users buying and/or selling items over these networks loosely comprise a marketplace community within an electronic environment. A distinction between non-electronic selling practices such as traditional stores and current electronic selling mechanisms is the component of anonymity inherent in an electronic environment, which is not always conducive to forming a trusting environment in which two or more users wish to form a business relationship.
To overcome some reservations about the anonymity component within the electronic marketplace community and to provide incentives for participating in transactions within electronic marketplaces. Internet marketplaces, such as auction sites run by eBay. Inc. of San Jose, Calif. provide feedback ratings generated from feedback between users. A user's feedback rating may indicate the user's reputation within the electronic community and provides some indication of the trustworthiness and responsiveness of that user. A representation of a user's feedback rating may be displayed along with a business transaction request by the user.
Feedback ratings may provide a useful mechanism for indicating a level of user's trustworthiness or past participation within an electronic commerce forum. Users desire to increase their feedback ratings because they are one indication of a user's reputation in the electronic community, and users with high feedback ratings may enjoy expanded opportunities to transact business and obtain higher profits or access to more goods and services. To further motivate the earning of a high feedback rating, some marketplace providers give awards or identify the users whose feedback ratings have reached a certain value, or who are among some number of users with the highest feedback ratings.